The XMM-Newton space telescope specializes in X-ray observations, in fact XMM means X-ray Multi-Mirror. Among its many functions there’s also its use to observe neutron stars and a few days ago during what whas supposed to be a routine observation it detected X-rays of a wavelength nearly ten thousand times more intense than normal.
It all started from the scheduled twelve and a half hour observation of a binary system known only as IGR J18410-0535 which consists of a blue supergiant star and a neutron star. It’s a combination that causes short bursts with strong X-ray emissions for which a specific class of star systems was created called Supergiant Fast X-Ray Transients (SFXTs).
When the data received from the Space Telescope have been examined, Dr. Enrico Bozzo, ISDC (INTEGRAL Science Data Center) Data Center for Astrophysics, University of Geneva, the leader of this research, together with his colleagues realized they witnessed a special event.
The blue supergiant star of the observed couple had ejected ​​a cloud of material with a really huge total volume, estimated at one hundred billion times the Moon. However the estimated total mass was only a thousandth of our satellite because of the cloud’s low density. All this material has been devoured by the neutron star causing the anomalous X-ray emission detected by the XMM-Newton space telescope in the stellar flare that was triggered.
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Dr. Bozzo said that the observation was very lucky because such flares typically occur probably no more than a few times a year in that star system and this was observed from start to finish. This observation is a considerable help to the investigation on blue supergiants behavior and the way they eject gas into space.
All the stars form stellar wind ejecting matter and in certain configurations of binary systems in which there’s a neutron star it absorbs material from its companion through a disk that is formed by attracting stellar wind. In a configuration belonging to the SFXTs class however the companion’s stellar wind is too strong to be captured that way so according to the theories clumps of matter are captured and absorbed directly by the neutron star causing X-ray bursts. The observation made ​​by Dr. Bozzo’s team confirms this theory.
